There's Always Something New to Do at BORA

I've been making annual trips to the country's sun-worshipping-place-to-be, also known as Boracay. My parents and some of my friends have been asking me if I don't get bored with visiting the place every year --- Bora doesn't change that much, they think, and thus going there at least once in your lifetime makes them qualified to say "been there, done that" whenever the topic of a Boracay vacation comes up.

Well, they're wrong.

I don't get bored at Bora. And the "been there, done that" routine does not apply to a Boracay vacationeer, specially if you're the creative and/or adventurous type.

Acting on a very compulsive manner, I decided to go to Boracay last week when Duane told me that he'll be there with 6 female colleagues from China, all single and available. Wait, wait, wait. I didn't plan my Boracay trip because of the "single and available" phrase. A Bora trip is definitely much more fun if you're going there with the prior knowledge that you'll be able to meet up with someone you know, and from there start getting to know who they know so that your social circle expands. A bigger social circle gives you more options on what to do at Boracay. Bai, on the other hand, decided to join this Bora trip because of the "single and available" phrase initially, hahaha. (Later on, Bai planned on taking kiteboarding lessons as his ultimate purpose for going on this trip).

Enough with the introductory storytelling.

For this Bora trip, I've planned on bringing my trusty EOS400D DSLR camera along for a pet project which I called the "Hundred Bora Girls Project". The mechanics are simple: take photos (either stolen or with permission granted) of at least 100 babes in the party island of Boracay.

So how did it turn out?

Well, I'll let some of the pictures do the talking.












We were fortunate to find out that on the dates that we were at Boracay, a summer event tagged as "X ON THE BEACH" was ongoing. Open competitions on extreme sports on the beach: wakeboarding, skimboarding, wall-climbing and ultimate frisbee. No registration fee! All we needed to do was just walk-in and register.

I registered for the speed-wall climbing competition while Bai registered for the wakeboarding competition. It's my first time to compete at speed-climbing (I've competed before on technical climbing, and they're totally different) and it was gonna be Bai's first time to compete in a wakeboarding event.

How it did turn out? Well, I didn't win the event (my time was 16.2 secs, while the 1st place finisher did it in 12 seconds flat!) and neither did Bai win in his event. BUT... I got an interview (and a good probability of being shown on a local TV show called "Sports Unlimited"). HAHAHAHAHA!

Ultimate frisbee anyone? It was my first time to watch an ultimate frisbee game done on the beach, and it turned out to be more exciting than the frisbee matches I see done at the San Lorenzo park or at the UP grounds.

Well, how about skimboarding? It really looked like an easy thing to do, but the ease with how the locals are able to do it is very deceiving. Skimboarding is H-A-R-D. First you need to lug a skimboard (and it's a bit heavy) on a running start. Next, you throw the board at the waterline such that it skims the water. Third, you chase after the board. Fourth, you jump on the board. Finally, you try to skim the water with the board. Hahaha... I injured my right big toe when I tried my skill at it, somewhere between steps 3 and 4. I had some minor successes on skimboarding, but there's very big room for improvement.

Of course, strolling the long stretch of Boracay's beaches will let you meet some interesting people. Old guys multi-tasking on the beach (go figure what I mean, haha), a multi-racial jamming session, very friendly locals (kids and manangs and everyone in-between their age brackets) and of course, the tourists!

Boracay's sunsets are great. There are so many ways to take a sunset shot of Boracay, and here's some of the good ones that we got.



Of course, we did the usual stuff: swim at the beach, get henna tattoos, meet girls, go drinking and get really drunk, shop, dine, talk with the locals... but if you're the fun, creative and adventurous type, there is always something new to do at Bora.

...like getting an outrageous hairstyle (which, by the way, rendered my boss speechless when I showed up at work with it).